Laos: Inside a Drug Detention Center

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A detainee at the Somsanga center near Vientiane. The essence of Somsanga’s purported “treatment” remains being locked up, at risk of physical abuse for infringing rules, or trying to escape. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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Once inside Somsanga, people cannot come and go. Most detainees are held in locked cells inside a compound with high walls topped with barbed wire. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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Exercise drills involving pushups and calisthenics take place early every morning in Somsanga center. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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A guard lectures detainees in Somsanga center. Classes in drug use and courses such as vocational training may be beneficial for some people trying to overcome drug dependency, but there is no rationale for premising such services on months or years of involuntary detention. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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Detainees stare out from behind bars at the Somsanga Centre. The essence of drug “treatment” in Somsanga is detention. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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The toilets in Somsanga’s “lower buildings” are dirty and in poor condition. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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The Lao government uses the Somsanga center as a convenient dumping ground for populations that are deemed “undesirable” by police or the village militia. In addition to the mentally ill, homeless people and street children may be detained in Somsanga. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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Inside Somsanga’s “lower buildings” hundreds and sometimes over a thousand detainees languish in overcrowded cells. People who might have a genuine need for drug dependency treatment are locked in alongside casual drug users, beggars, the homeless, the mentally ill, and street children. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
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Detainees live in a punitive and heavily controlled environment. Detainees who try to escape may be brutally beaten by “room captains”—trusted detainees whom staff designate to play a central role in the daily control of other detainees. © 2011 Arantxa Cedillo 268422
The Somsanga Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Laos has received a decade of international support from the United States, the United Nations, and other donors. But inside the center, detainees are held without due process, and many are locked in cells inside barbed wire compounds. Joseph Amon, director of health and human rights at Human Rights Watch, reports.
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Laos: Inside a Drug Detention Center

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Laos: Inside a Drug Detention Center